Poirot's Last Cases

Great news for fans of the long-running (almost 25 years!) series of Hercule Poirot mysteries with David Suchet.  It turns out that they have shot five more films based on Agatha Christie novels, all of which have aired in England, and which are scheduled to run on PBS in 2014.  (The last time Poirots aired here, it was in June/July, so I suspect that could be the case this time around.)

The sad news is that this completes the entire run.  They will have shot all the novels and, I believe, all the short stories with Poirot.

In this final batch, there are some terrific stories.  The list includes, of course, Curtain: Poirot's Last Case.  This was the novel that Agatha Christie wrote at the height of her skills and success in the 1940s, but put it (and a final Miss Marple -- Sleeping Murder) aside in the vault, not to be released until after her death, sort of as a gift to fans and an legacy for her heirs.  Because of the massive success of the movie, Murder on the Orient Express, Christie was convinced by publishers to release Curtain early, though Sleeping Murder was held until after.

In addition to Curtain, this final group of films includes -- Elephants Can Remember, The Big Four, Dead Man's Folly, and The Labours of Hercules.

These (along with Curtain) are a terrific bunch, and some are favorites.  One of them contains what I consider the all-time greatest Agatha Christie clue ever.  I won't give it away, or even say which novel it's in.  Or even why it's the greatest clue.  But I'm very serious about this.  What I'll say though is that Christie was known for her mastery of placing clues for the readers, making it possible for the readers to guess the solution, if they were skilled enough.  Granted, it would still be incredibly hard to guess, but at least the clues were there.  But of all those clues, she wrote one that tops them all.  Perhaps at some point, after these air, I'll write about it with enough "Spoiler Alert" disclaimers.  Because even after the fact, it's great.

The Big Four is a novel I always loved, though it's very different from all other Poirots, which is probably the reason it stood out for me.  It was written in the 1960s, and is almost more a spy novel than mystery, having to do with world power and governments.

Dead Man's Folly is terrific, and if it's not among the best Poirots, it's very much written in her classic style and quite strong.  And The Labours of Hercules is great fun, almost a collection of short stories tied together with an underlying story.  In it, Hercule Poirot sort of re-creates the legendary labors of his namesake, and in doing so solves the greater murder.

As for Elephants Can Remember -- I don't remember.  I think it was one of Christie's later novels.  Fine, enjoyable but not a classic.

And then there's Curtain.  Written at her height, and a fascinating tale.

I can't wait.  I read that they didn't shoot this final batch in order, but did Curtain first.  If I had to guess, that's because in case anything untoward happened to David Suchet, or they lost their funding, or any other reason, they wanted to be sure to have "Poirot's Last Case" done.  What I also read in one article online is (and there's no plot point here) that the final shot of the final episode was shot at Agatha Christie's own estate.  Very touching -- and fitting.

Can't wait.